How to Enable Microsoft 365 Copilot via the Dogfood Preview Channel

Microsoft recently announced that GPT‑4 will be integrated into Microsoft 365 as a Copilot assistant, which can be summoned from the sidebar of Office apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams.

Because Copilot is still in preview, the Dogfood channel versions are often unstable, so users should proceed with caution.

Prerequisite: You must have an active Microsoft 365 subscription. If you do not wish to purchase one, the author references external articles that describe how to obtain a free E5 account with automatic renewal.

Step 1 – Switch to the Dogfood preview channel – Edit four registry values (AudienceData, AudienceID, CDNBaseURL, UpdateChannel) under the key:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\ClickToRun\Configuration

The required AudienceID for the Dogfood::DevMain channel is ea4a4090-de26-49d7-93c1-91bff9e53fc3 . Below is a table of channel IDs and their corresponding names:

AudienceId                           | AudienceData       | Channel
EA4A4090-DE26-49D7-93C1-91BFF9E53FC3 | Dogfood::DevMain
F3260CF1-A92C-4C75-B02E-D64C0A86A968 | Dogfood::CC
834504CC-DC55-4C6D-9E71-E024D0253F6D | Dogfood::FRDC
C4A7726F-06EA-48E2-A13A-9D78849EB706 | Dogfood::DCEXT
B61285DD-D9F7-41F2-9757-8F61CBA4E9C8 | Microsoft::DevMain
5462EEE5-1E97-495B-9370-853CD873BB07 | Microsoft::CC
9A3B7FF2-58ED-40FD-ADD5-1E5158059D1C | Microsoft::FRDC
F4F024C8-D611-4748-A7E0-02B6E754C0FE | Microsoft::DC
1D2D2EA6-1680-4C56-AC58-A441C8C24FF9 | Microsoft::LTSC
5440FD1F-7ECB-4221-8110-145EFAA6372F | Insiders::DevMain | Beta
64256AFE-F5D9-4F86-8936-8840A6A4F5BE | Insiders::CC | Current Preview
B8F9B850-328D-4355-9145-C59439A0C4CF | Insiders::FRDC | Semi-Annual Preview
492350F6-3A01-4F97-B9C0-C7C6DDF67D60 | Production::CC | Current
55336B82-A18D-4DD6-B5F6-9E5095C314A6 | Production::MEC | Monthly Enterprise
7FFBC6BF-BC32-4F92-8982-F9DD17FD3114 | Production::DC | Semi-Annual
F2E724C1-748F-4B47-8FB8-8E0D210E9208 | Production::LTSC | Perpetual2019

Step 2 – Update Microsoft 365 to the latest version – After switching to the preview channel, manually check for updates so the client installs the newest (often unstable) build, e.g., version 2305.

Step 3 – Enable Copilot for Word – Add a new string value named Microsoft.Office.Word.CoPilotExperiment with the data true under the same configuration key; currently only Word supports the preview.

Step 4 – Restart Word – Close and reopen Word; the Copilot pane should appear on the start screen.

Finally, the author emphasizes that the Dogfood preview is an early, unstable release intended for experimentation only, that Copilot currently works only in English, and that it should not be relied upon for production work.